I want to upgrade my phone to a Blackberry 'PASSPORT' . When is the Blackberry 'PASSPORT' going to be available ?
Don't think we are going to get it anytime soon...or a response from VZW for that matter...I have tried numerous calls to VZW...nothing. I have tried Blackberry...nothing.
AT&T does have the US exclusive for the Passport...just no date from them as to when they will start selling them. Lots of rumors that it will either be just before the holidays...or just after.
I have had a Blackberry device for about 20 years. Been a Verizon customer via work or personally for that long as well.
I think Blackberry is going to move to selling devices directly (Amazon, Shop Blackberry, etc). Too much risk with inventory write offs for unsold phones (and Carrier relations not that great in US) Blackberry had to write off $800M on unsold inventory on the Z10...which I enjoy as I have one. The BB10 operating system ROCKS...people don't know what they are missing...
Truth is...BB only had to sell about 240K Passport Phones to be profitable...they sold over 200K in the first few hours it was released...That phone is now sold out in every market worldwide where it has been released.
Although I am frequently on Crackberry daily to check out info...here was a fairly un-biased and detailed look at the Passport if you haven't seen it yet.
BlackBerry Passport review: Ticket to ride - GSMArena.com
There are some other reviews out there from folks who have actually used the phone for a week or 2...this link just does some straight up comparisons. Other reviews from actual users...are very positive.
Bottom Line: I won't stay with Verizon if there is no Passport. I also will no longer lock myself into a contract by purchasing a subsidized phone from Verizon (actually more expensive anyway) I will buy the device...and then shop for the carrier to add my phone (obviously one that has a GSM network at this point).
Sorry for the long reply...I guess I'm just frustrated too...
Since others who may not frequent the site at crackberry visit here...here is a review and video demo of the Passport.
There are two schools of thought on Passport.
One is that Verizon will NOT get the Passport at all. It will be an AT&T exclusive in the U.S. Instead, Verizon will get the exclusive U.S. deal on the Classic. I'm beginning to view this as the most likely scenario.
The other possibility is that a CDMA version, as yet unseen and not submitted to the FCC, will appear some time after the GSM version was released. When the Z30 launched it came first to GSM carriers and then to Verizon about a month and a half later. Alternately, Verizon could get the Passport after the (alleged) AT&T exclusive ends. That would probably be about 6 months after the AT&T launch. Right now AT&T is the only U.S. carrier to confirm it will carry the BlackBerry Passport. This might explain why we have yet to see a CDMA Passport hit the FCC. It's still too soon.
I've grown pessimistic on seeing the Passport hit Verizon ever. I was hugely disappointed at first, but now I'm beginning to feel the Classic would suit me better anyway. Classic should be released in November according to Chen.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
